Our story
About L.A. & ABQ Castle Studios: virtual production since 2007
Founded by Tim Pipher in Burbank in 2007, L.A. Castle Studios pioneered CastleVision virtual production, now patented, and runs turnkey studios in Burbank and Albuquerque.
- Founded in Burbank in 2007
- Two U.S. patents
- Studios in Burbank and Albuquerque
- 250+ ready-to-load sets
Or call 818-934-3775 Burbank 818-861-7317 Albuquerque
Productions that have trusted us
The networks, the streamers and the studios have all shot here.
Hart to Heart, Aquaman 2, Inventing Anna, Bosch, The Mummy, Greenland, Deadliest Catch and national spots for T-Mobile, Amazon and Domino's. Full credit list
The founding
A different idea about how film should be shot.
- Founded in Burbank
- 2007
- U.S. patents
- Two
- Studios in Burbank and Albuquerque
- Two
- Ready-to-load sets
- 250+
L.A. Castle Studios was founded in Burbank in 2007 by Tim Pipher with a contrarian premise: that the right place to compose a shot was on the stage, not in post. That the actors should see the world they were performing in. That the director should be making decisions about the final image while the camera was still rolling, not nine months later in a comp review.
In plain terms, the location is a photoreal virtual set that appears around your talent live, in camera, on our stage. You see the finished shot on the monitor while you film. New to the idea? Start with what a virtual production company in Los Angeles actually does.
The traditional way, filming the backgrounds separately and combining everything months later in post, works. But it works expensively, slowly, and at the cost of letting the talent and the director respond in real time to the world they're building.
Tim's answer was a new pipeline: capture real-world locations with their natural movement (people walking, cars moving, birds flying, lighting shifting), integrate them with virtual environments, and display the composite to the stage in real time. The cast performs against a living world. The director sees the final shot in camera. The producer skips the line items that traditional production assumed were unavoidable: travel, the permit chase, weather, teardown. And because nearly any scene can be filmed without leaving the building, the method opened creative possibilities, for filmmakers and for anyone with a story to tell, that a location shoot never could.
The method: pioneered in 2007, now patented
Back in 2007, Tim built the method that became CastleVision: a real-time virtual production filming workflow that combines captured real-world plates with computer-generated environments, displayed live to the camera, with parallax response and lighting continuity preserved on stage. The approach is now protected by two U.S. patents: one for filming with a video game engine, and one for the CastleVision method itself. CastleVision 3D carries it into real places scanned as photoreal 3D sets the camera can move through.
The method was years ahead of the industry's adoption curve. By the time Unreal Engine virtual production became standard practice on major tentpole productions, Brooks and Tim had already been running the same workflow on real productions for over a decade. It is green screen with a live, in-camera composite, not an LED volume: the virtual set is composited in camera instead of being shown on a wall behind the actors.
The Burbank studio
The flagship facility is the castle building on S. Victory Blvd., our movie studio in Burbank: across from Nickelodeon Studios, minutes from Warner Bros. and Disney, in the heart of Los Angeles' production ecosystem. Aquaman 2, Bosch, Inventing Anna, The Mummy and Greenland have all shot here. It is the home of Kevin Hart's Hart to Heart and of countless talk shows, game shows, press junkets and national commercials, including spots for T-Mobile, Amazon, Sonic, Domino's and NBA 2K. The full credit list links each title to IMDb.
Expanding to Albuquerque
In 2024, the company opened a second studio in Albuquerque, ABQ Castle Studios, one of the largest virtual production stages in the world, designed to combine the same CastleVision pipeline with New Mexico's film incentive. The ABQ studio is a New Mexico Qualified Production Facility (QPF), so productions earn the 5% facility uplift on top of the 25% base credit, for a 30% refundable New Mexico film tax credit.
Albuquerque is our feature film studio. Features are shot on our stages, including the released feature Abstraction (2025), and Mr. Spaceship, a feature from producer Brooks Pipher's Vista Grande Films, was captured almost entirely in camera in Albuquerque with a New Mexico resident crew. Albuquerque's KOAT featured the studio in its Oscars-night coverage, with Tim interviewed.
Still the standard
Nearly two decades after Tim started, the industry has caught up to the idea that virtual production is the future. We've spent those years refining what that future actually looks like: multi-camera, in-camera, real-time, with the sets, the pipeline, the operator who runs it and the support spaces under one roof, and crew as an option, so the producer's job is to walk in with a script and walk out with footage.
Tim first shot this way in 2007. It is still how producers shoot on our stage today, now with two U.S. patents behind it.
On camera
Walk the studios Tim Pipher built, and see the work shot in them
Full tours of Burbank and Albuquerque, the CastleVision demo, and three productions from the Burbank floor. Hover to preview; click to play with sound. Tap to play with sound.
The set library today
A castle, a newsroom, an Old West town: the library at both studios
250+ virtual sets that load in seconds, the same library in Burbank and Albuquerque. Don't see yours? We build it.
Check availability
Talk to the people who run L.A. & ABQ Castle Studios
Tell us what you're making and your dates, or ask for a tour. A producer reads it, not a sales queue, and replies with availability at both studios.
- Turnkey: the studio, 250+ sets, lighting, audio, the teleprompter system and the operator who runs the virtual sets
- Producer tours by appointment, with a live CastleVision demo on the monitor
- Quoted against your actual shoot, never a rack rate
Rather talk it through? 818-934-3775 · Burbank
818-861-7317 · Albuquerque
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A producer will reach out to talk through your project and next steps. Need us sooner? Call 818-934-3775 (Burbank) or 818-861-7317 (Albuquerque).
Questions
Who we are, where we are, and what the patents cover
- Who founded L.A. Castle Studios?
- Tim Pipher founded L.A. Castle Studios in Burbank in 2007. He built the method that became CastleVision, pioneered in 2007 and now protected by two U.S. patents. Tim and producer Brooks Pipher have run the same real-time workflow on real productions for well over a decade.
- Is L.A. Castle Studios the castle building in Burbank?
- Yes. L.A. Castle Studios is the ivy-covered, castle-facade building at 154 S. Victory Blvd, Burbank, CA 91502, directly across from Nickelodeon Studios and about five minutes from Warner Bros. It is the flagship studio, where CastleVision was pioneered.
- What is the difference between L.A. Castle Studios and ABQ Castle Studios?
- They are one company with two studios. L.A. Castle Studios is in Burbank, California. ABQ Castle Studios opened in 2024 at 8610 President Pl NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is a New Mexico Qualified Production Facility, so studio days there put a qualifying production on the 30% refundable state film credit track. Both run the same CastleVision pipeline and the same set library.
- What do the two CastleVision patents cover?
- Both patents are U.S.-issued. One covers filming with a video game engine; the other covers the CastleVision method itself: filming a real place, with its real light and movement, and bringing it onto the stage so actors perform inside it and the camera can move as if it were there.
- Can I tour the studios before I book?
- Yes. Producer tours run by appointment and include a live CastleVision demo, so you watch the composite run on the monitor before you commit. Ask through the form on this page or call either studio.
More answers on the studio FAQ, or send us a note.
Where to go after the company story
The method, the two studios, the credits and the sets, each on its own page.
- How CastleVision works The patented method Tim built, explained for someone new to virtual production.
- The Burbank studio The castle building at 154 S. Victory Blvd, across from Nickelodeon.
- The Albuquerque studio ABQ Castle Studios, our feature film studio in New Mexico.
- Studio tour and facility photos The floors, green rooms, offices and support spaces at both studios.
- The full credit list Features, series, specials and national spots, linked to IMDb.
- The virtual set library 250+ ready-to-load sets, the same library at both studios.
- Virtual production in Los Angeles What a virtual production company does, and what you skip.
- CastleVision 3D A real place scanned into a photoreal 3D set the camera can move through.
- New Mexico film tax credit How studio days in Albuquerque put a production on the 30% track.
- Film studio rental Renting a studio for a feature or series at either location.
- Talk show sets The format Burbank is known for, including Kevin Hart's Hart to Heart.
- Game show sets Custom game show worlds built in Unreal Engine.
- Production offices in Burbank Furnished offices on site in Burbank, month to month.
- Studio rates What drives a quote and what comes with the studio.
Send the production and your dates, or ask for a tour. We reply with availability at Burbank and Albuquerque and a quote built on your actual shoot.